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317 



THE DIGNITY AND THE DUTY OF A 
MINISTER OF CHRIST. 



SERMON, 



Rev. EDWARD JESSUP, M. A., 

RECTOR OF THE CHURCH OF THE REDEEMER, 
BROOKLYN, N. Y . 



THE 



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A SEEMON, 



PREACHED IN 



BROOKLYN, IV. Y., 

The Third Sunday after Trinity, 1864. 

By the Rev. EDWARD JESSIJP, M. A., Rector. 



.-1 



Published by a Committee of the Congregation. 



""Will you maintain and set forwards, as much as lieth in you, quietness, 
peace, and love, among all Christian people, and especially among them that 
are or shall be committed to your charge ? 

" I will so do, the Lord being my helper."— The Ordinal. 




$*fo-gork : 

JAMES POTT, Kos. 5 and 13 COOPEE UNION", 

FOTTBTH AtESTJB. 

1864. 



^ 



SERMON. 



Acts xx. 24. — " But none of these things move me, neither count 
i my life dear unto myself, so that i might finish my course "with 
joy, and the ministry, "which i have received of the lord jesus, to 
testify the gospel of the grace of god." 



St. Paul here speaks in the character of an 
ambassador of Christ, and a faithful, large- 
hearted shepherd of souls. The sentiment 
which breathes through this noble sentence is 
that of a man who thoroughly understood the 
nature of his office, who comprehended well 
its duties, who felt deeply the burden of its 
responsibilities, and to whose experience had 
fallen a large measure of its difficulties and its 
trials. The ministry of the gospel was to him 
no mere profession, chosen with reference to 
his private tastes, and pursued as a pathway of 
respectable routine. But it was the life-conse- 
cration of a great and earnest nature, wrought 
up to the highest pitch of a divine enthusiasm, 
and utterly oblivious of all self-interest and 



4 THE DIGNITY AND THE DUTY 

self-pleasing. St. Paul exercised the ministerial 
function as one who realized that it involved 
the issues of his own salvation no less than the 
salvation of his fellow-men — as one before 
whose conscience there was always stretched, as 
though written in letters of fire, the awful sen- 
tence, " Woe is me if I preach not the gospel.' 7 
He felt that he belonged to the heavenly Mas- 
ter, who had called him from the ways of error 
to serve as a standard-bearer in the kingdom 
of His truth. For him there was no choice of 
services remaining — no side-door of escape 
through which it was possible for him to pass 
into the inviting fields of worldly occupation. 
One path alone there was in which he dared 
to tread — a rough and painful road, it is true, 
but leading surely on to triumph and reward 
at last. 

Beloved, it is a thought full of cheer and 
comfort to the heart even of the humblest of 
the Lord's ministers, that by the golden chain 
of his commission he holds a part of the same 
office and ministry which once was filled by 
this great champion of the Cross. And as 
such an one finds at times the burden laid upon 
him swelling to dimensions that seem almost 
overwhelming — as fainting through discour- 



OF A MINISTER OF CHRIST. 5 

agements and stung with sorrows, he is in dan- 
ger, like the ancient prophet, of giving way 
before the storm of trial and flying from God's 
work — I know of nothing that can more effect- 
ually rally and revive his drooping spirits than 
to contemplate the calm and self-collected, the 
hopeful and buoyant, and, I might almost say, 
defiant attitude of thought exhibited by the 
apostle in the text. " Bonds and afflictions" 
awaited him in the prosecution of his work ; 
" tears and temptations," as they had already 
mingled largely in his experience, so still, he 
foresaw that they must fall to his future lot ; 
the treachery of some and the desertion of 
others whom he had reckoned among his 
friends; unscrupulous conspiracies to hinder 
and to thwart his efforts in Christ's service ; 
malicious assaults, more or less concealed, upon 
his character and motives ; a countless brood 
of dark designs, spawned in the hot-bed of 
prejudice and un charitableness, and crawling 
like loathsome vermin in his way ; backbitings, 
whisperings, evil surmises of men of corrupt 
minds, intrusions of busy-bodies in other men's 
matters — all these things, brethren, were to be 
found among the trials which tended to chafe ' 
and fret the spirit of this noble man of God. 



b THE DIGNITY AND THE DUTY 

And yet with what marvellous self-composure 
he succeeded in rising above them all into the 
serene level of faith and love, and holy hope 
and joy. Reviewing the past and looking forth 
upon the future — that future and that past, 
alike tearful, and painful, and difficult, he still 
could look up to the everlasting hills whence 
came his help, and utter such calm and exult- 
ing words as these: " None of these things 
move me, neither count I my life dear unto my- 
self so that I might finish my course with joy, 
and the ministry, which I have received of the 
Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of 
GodP My brethren, I feel to-day that it can 
hardly fail to be of benefit, both to you and to 
myself, to draw out some of the lessons which 
lie stored in these memorable words. Let us 
see what was the secret of the strength which 
carried the Lord's servant so loftily above the 
troubled waters. 

I remark, in the first place, that the Apostle 
was undoubtedly sustained by a profound con- 
sciousness of the dignity of the commission 
under which he discharged his ministry. It 
was, as you will observe that he has here de- 
scribed it, " the ministry ivhich he had received 
of the Lord Jesus.' 1 '' It was no office which he 



OF A MINISTER OF CHRIST. 7 

had taken upon himself without warrant of due 
authority ; no position into which he had thrust 
himself uncalled, and in which, because un- 
called, he must needs find disappointment. 
Nor was it an elevation to which he had been 
lifted up by the suffrages of his fellow-men, 
and for which he stood indebted to any human 
favor. He had neither appointed himself to 
such an undertaking, nor could he of himself 
relinquish it. Man had not conferred the 
office on him, nor to man was he accountable 
for its discharge. But there was ever present 
to his mind the solemn thought that he held 
an ambassadorship from the Eternal King — he 
was the appointed delegate of Christ Jesus, 
armed with credentials from His hand, and 
empowered to speak and act directly in His 
name. So it was that he felt himself entitled 
to stand up boldly, and to carry himself inde- 
pendently, in all that related to the duties of 
the ministerial position. The doctrine which 
he taught was the doctrine of the Lord Jesus, 
and, whether men would hear or would for- 
bear, nothing should hinder his proclaiming it. 
Obnoxious doctrine it indeed proved to the 
majority of those who heard it. It came down 
like the upper millstone on the cherished pre- 



8 THE DIGNITY AND THE DUTY 

judices and the choicest opinions of mankind, 
and ground them into powder. Men gnashed 
their teeth with rage, and foamed out their 
hatred against this daring assailant of their 
mental idols. They would have muzzled him 
if they could, or have compelled him to utter 
sentiments in harmony with their own. But 
St. Paul was not the man to submit to any 
such dictation — not the man to square his ut- 
terances with any popular caprice — not the 
man to trim his sails to catch the prevailing 
breeze, nor to steer his course so as to float 
with the current. no ; that lofty spirit of 
his, braced up by the consciousness that he 
was u the messenger of the Lord Jesus," never 
could have stooped to the baseness of catering 
for the public humor. Such a man would 
sooner have died a thousand deaths, than per- 
mit himself to be swerved so much as the 
breadth of the finest hair from the strict line 
of his duty and his responsibility as Christ's 
commissioned servant. 

Brethren, the source of ministerial authority 
remains te-day the same that it was for the 
Apostle. -•With him the poorest of those who 
stand in sacred places may plant himself upon 
the broad ground of the call which, like Aaron, 



OF A MINISTER OF CHRIST. V 

he has received from God through those earthly 
channels which He has Himself appointed. 
You neither make nor can you unmake a min- 
ister of Christ. His business, therefore, is one 
that takes a range quite beyond the reach of 
any will of yours. He speaks and acts in holy 
things altogether independent on any power 
that you can bestow or can diminish. I am 
not here to flatter you, and, therefore, I do not 
hesitate to put very plainly before you a truth 
which too often would appear to be forgotten. 
We sometimes seem to get possessed with the 
idea that the duty of a spiritual guide is to 
follow rather than to lead his flock ; to reflect 
their prejudices rather than to correct them ; 
and that in any event, whatever may be his 
own convictions, his business is to aim first of 
all at pleasing them. St. Paul, my brethren, 
did not so gauge the responsibility of the min- 
istry. " Do I now persuade men, or God ?" 
was his bold challenge to certain malcontents 
in the Church at Galatia — " or do I seek to 
please men ? for if I yet pleased men, I should 
not be the servant of Christ." So, again, to 
the Corinthians, "Let a man so account of us, 
as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of 
the mysteries of God." " But with me it is a 



10 THE DIGNITY AND THE DUTY 

very small thing that I should be judged of 
you or of men's judgment. * * He that 
judgeth me is the Lord." 

And such, dear brethren, must be the sen- 
timent and such the spirit of every man who 
feels himself to have been duly authorized to 
speak and to act in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
We are indeed content to subscribe ourselves 
" your servants for Jesus' sake." We utterly 
disclaim every thing like that unholy ambition 
which would "lord it over God's heritage," 
and which, under the corrupt system of the 
papacy, has grafted upon the true dignity of a 
spiritual priesthood the vain assumption of a 
temporal power. We do not lay claim to the 
exercise of any constraint upon your con- 
sciences, nor would we encourage the faintest 
shadow of an unmanly subservience to our 
office. Our motto is that, in Christ's kingdom, 
" he that is chief, must be as he that doth 
serve." Like our blessed Master we would gird 
ourselves for the lowliest ministrations to the 
humblest members of His household, even to 
the washing of the disciples' feet and to the 
giving of the cup of cold water to the least 
of the little ones. But, brethren, you must 
allow us to do all this at the bidding of our 



OF A MINISTER OF CHRIST. 11 

Master, and not in response to any exac- 
tion of yours, Whatever we do for you we 
must be permitted to do it as the agents of 
Christ and not as the tools of your pleasure. 
You are entitled to receive the benefits which 
for you have been entrusted to our hands ; 
but you must not assume to control the dis- 
pensing of those benefits. Not to you have 
we to render our account of this stewardship — 
our tribunal is far higher, and to the great 
Shepherd and Bishop of souls must we make 
answer in the end. This is the only view of the 
nature of our responsibility that can make the 
office of the ministry at all tolerable to ourselves, 
or that can secure for it a decent measure of 
respect in the eyes of mankind. We feel it to 
be indeed an honor to come before you, in the 
proud consciousness that we are duly autho- 
rized to treat with you in the Saviour's name. 
Glorious is the position of the man of God, as 
we contemplate him going forth to the battle 
against the enemies of righteousness, weak in- 
deed in himself and armed with but slender 
weapons — the sling and the pebble — yet clad 
with the invisible chain-armor of confidence 
in his call to undertake the contest. 0, as I 
see the Apostle beset with difficulties and 



12 THE DIGNITY AND THE DUTY 

trials; overwhelmed with the burden of many- 
sorrows; his generous nature stung to the 
quick by the experience of man's unkindness, 
— and amid all this hear him exulting in the 
very midst of tribulation, and bidding defiance 
to every assault upon his peace, I feel that 
nothing could have thus sustained him but the 
deep and unswerving assurance that his cause 
was not the cause of man but of God. " None 
of these things move me, so that I might finish 
my course with joy, and the ministry, which I 
have received of the Lord Jesus." 

A further cause of the Apostle's calm self- 
possession is to be found in his absorbing de- 
votion to the one great end for which he had 
been put in trust with the ministry of Christ. 
This was, as you find it stated in the text, " to 
testify the gospel of the grace of God" or, as he 
has elsewhere expressed it, to "preach Jesus 
Christ and Him crucified." He felt that the 
work to which he had been set apart was a 
work that rose far above the fleeting interests 
which constitute the staple of man's common 
life on earth. The scene which war continu- 
ally present before his mind's eye, was the aw- 
ful spectacle of a world lying in wickedness, 
and exposed to the vengeance of a holy God. 



OF A MINISTER OP CHRIST. 13 

Men were, to his view, simply so many can- 
didates for eternity — immortal beings perish- 
ing in their sins, and only to be saved as they 
should embrace the gracious gospel which he 
was charged to preach. Human life he under- 
stood to be a period of probation, in which 
must be wrought out the soul's destiny for 
unending ages. All those men and women 
that surrounded him — his fellow-creatures— - 
carried within themselves the possibility of 
happiness or woe for ever. They might shine 
hereafter as the stars in the firmament of God, 
or they might sink miserably into untold depths 
of darkness and sorrow. And then he thought 
of the means which had been provided for 
their rescue. He thought of the wonderful 
mystery of redemption, and of the witness 
which it bore to the greatness of the~ peril to 
which the sinner was exposed. He thought of 
the Saviour's sacrifice — the everlasting Lamb 
of God that taketh away the sins of the world. 
He thought of the value of the soul, for which 
the whole vast universe could not afford the 
price. He thought of the infinite pains God 
had been at to bring back the poor lost sheep, 
and of the joy in heaven, in the presence of the 
angels, at the rescue of but a single sinner. 



14 THE DIGNITY AND TEE DUTY 

Fired by such contemplations, he went forth 
to tell the good news of God, and to preach 
the doctrines of repentance and faith in the 
Son of God as the only method by which men 
could be saved. Everything else was lost 
sight of in this single purpose of winning souls 
to the Redeemer. This was the labor of his 
life, this the burden of his teachings, and this 
the all-engrossing topic of his thoughts and of 
his desires. For this he was ready to sink all 
issues thatpertained merely to the present life — 
questions of nationality ; questions of secular 
philosophy ; questions of mere philanthropy ; 
questions of human prejudice— he soared above 
them all, holding on high the simple Cross of 
Christ as the one only object worthy to engage 
attention. 

My brethren, is St. Paul to be regarded as 
an example, in this respect, to ministers of 
Christ in general, or is he not? Have the 
great facts and issues of Christianity so changed, 
that some different mode of discharging the 
duties of an embassador of the Lord Jesus may 
profitably be resorted to ? Are men any the 
less in danger of losing their souls now than 
they were formerly ? And is the necessity for 
proclaiming an unadulterated gospel any the 



OF A MINISTER OF CHRIST. 15 

less urgent than it has been heretofore? May 
the grand old themes, profound as the mysteries 
of eternity, and awful as the possibilities of hu» 
man destiny, be safely superseded in favor of 
the flimsy questions of the hour ? Has it in- 
deed come to this, that it shall be brought as a 
railing accusation against a Christian priest 
that his ministrations take on no hue from the 
popular excitements prevailing around him ? 
That he shall be libelled with infamous charges, 
simply for the reason that he has confined him- 
self strictly to the proper pathway of his call- 
ing ? that he shall be made the victim of scan- 
dal and of conspiracy, for refusing to pander 
to men's earthly passions ? Have we reached 
such a pass, that men will not be satisfied un- 
less they can bring the atmosphere of the news- 
paper and the caucus with them into the house 
of God ? — that they cannot for one short hour 
worship their Maker, without polluting the 
offering with meat offered to an earthly idol ? 
Cannot Christians consent to leave the world 
behind them, on coming into the presence of 
that Majesty which fills all heaven with glory ? 
to forget for this little space the tumult and the 
strife that rage so furiously outside, and try to 
rise into that purer level where God is all in 



16 THE DIGNITY AND THE DUTY 

all? The times must, indeed, be sadly out of 
joint if such a state of feeling has come to pre* 
vail extensively among the followers of Him 
" whose kingdom is not of this world." 

The theory which I myself have been accus* 
tomed to cherish has been, that in the Church 
of God no merely earthly issue could rightfully 
have place. I had supposed that there at least 
all men might meet as Christians, and con- 
scious of their common tie in the fellowship of 
Jesus, forget the differences which elsewhere 
keep them asunder. The echo of such words 
as these — " there is no difference between the 
Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all 
is rich unto all that call upon Him" — had left 
upon my mind the impression that the com- 
mon prejudices and affinities that classify so- 
ciety entered not into the arrangements of the 
Lord's family ; but that there the one great tie 
of Christian sympathy took the place of those 
minor sympathies which, with their cobweb 
lines, bind men together in various earthly ag- 
gregations. In short, it had appeared to me 
that, differ as they might elsewhere on any 
conceivable topic whatsoever, men might still 
meet and mingle before the altar of their 
common Lord, conscious only that they were 



OF A MINISTER OF CHRIST. 17 

inspired with the same faith, animated by 
the same hope, and bound for the same eter- 
nity. 

But, brethren, I am almost ready to ask my- 
self whether this idea of mine has not been 
after all a mere delusion ? And whether St. 
Paul was not mistaken, when He described the 
gospel as a system in which note was taken of 
" neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor un- 
circumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor 
free, but Christ is all, and in all ?" Great God 
of peace and charity ! And is there, then, no 
sacred refuge to which Thy servants, vexed 
with the strife of tongues and weary with the 
scenes of earthly hatred, may retire and enjoy 
the blessedness of undisturbed communion 
with Thee, the common Father of our spirits ? 
Brethren, I most solemnly assure you, that 
were it possible for me to view Christianity in 
an aspect so narrow, so unlovely, I should feel 
compelled to renounce my faith in it altogether. 
I should hold it as a cheat and an imposture. 
I should hasten to rank myself among its ene- 
mies, and devote my life to fighting against it, 
as being one of the greatest hindrances in the 
way of human happiness and human dignity. 
And I give it you, furthermore, as my most 



18 THE DIGNITY AND THE DUTY 

earnest conviction, that the spirit of intoler- 
ance to which I have alluded, if it comes gen- 
erally to prevail among Christians, will do 
more to develop infidelity than all the writings 
of all the infidels that have lived since the be- 
ginning of the Christian era. These are fear- 
ful times, and our hearts may well tremble for 
the ark of God. When, in the very bosom of 
Christ's household, there appears to be spring- 
ing up a desire that the pure Bride of Christ 
may be prostituted to the pleasure of an earthly 
partizanship ; when some arbitrary standard of 
duty to Caesar is attempted to be planted on 
the very altar consecrated to the service of 
God ; when the temper of the ancient Phari- 
seeism is revived in another form, and men 
calling themselves Christians use the old words 
with a new meaning, " stand back, for I am 
holier than thou," I confess that I cannot re- 
press the conviction that the Church has fallen 
upon evil days. 

Brethren, as one of the watchmen set upon 
the walls of Zion, I declare to you that sooner 
than do any thing to foster a spirit of this 
kind — sooner than yield in any manner to the 
pressure of a sentiment so utterly at war with 
a gospel which bears upon its banner the motto, 



OF A MINISTER OF CHRIST. 19 

"peace on earth, good will towards men" — 
sooner than allow the position in which I stand 
as the head of this congregation to be bent 
one hair's breadth for the purpose of humor- 
ing any political fancy, or of reflecting any 
prevalent agitation in- the world outside, I 
would bore my tongue through with a hot 
iron, and lay my right hand upon the block 
to be severed from my body. Yes, let it be 
understood once for all that this parish, so long 
as it continues in my charge, is in. the special 
interest of no party, or clique, or set of men, 
whether in Church or State ; that it bears no 
distinctive complexion with regard to political 
affairs on one side or the other ; that no man 
or woman, old or young, will be permitted to 
prescribe what sort of people shall be admitted 
to its privileges, or what excluded from them ; 
and that whatever may be the sympathies of 
individuals with reference to the topics of the 
day, it will make no difference as to their posi- 
tion here as worshippers of the same God and 
heirs of the same promises. I am no friend to 
a tyrannous proscription for mere opinion's 
sake, nor can I consent to be the instrument 
through which it shall be brought to bear on 
the members of Christ's family. Such is the 



20 THE DIGNITY AND THE DUTY 

platform on which, this parish has been con- 
ducted heretofore, and on which, God helping 
me, it shall be conducted in the future. I be- 
lieve it to be the only true ground for us to 
take, in a world where men cannot always 
think and feel alike ; and I also believe that 
in the end it will prove to be the winning 
method. You may stigmatize it as you think 
best ; you may brand me, for holding it, with 
such epithets as your good taste and your 
Christian charity may suggest — it will make 
no difference. The record of my ministry has 
to go before a far more awful tribunal, to be 
submitted to a far more searching scrutiny, 
than that of any human censorship. 

Yes, dear brethren, the conscientious, earn- 
est minister of Christ can but think often and 
solemnly of the time when that record shall 
have closed. He looks forward to the hour 
when, worn out with faithful labors for the 
souls committed to his care — labors, it may 
be, which too often have met only ingratitude 
and unkindness — the weary servant of the Lord 
receives his summons to depart. And then he 
calls up that other hour, hung round with a 
still more terrible solemnity, when he shall 
meet, exposed in the full light of eternity, the 



OF A MINISTER OF CHRIST, 21 

history of all his toils, and prayers, and suffer- 
ings in the service of his Lord. There rises to 
his view that solemn scene, in which both pas- 
tor and people must have part, when he shall 
have to answer for his fidelity towards them, 
and they in turn shall have to answer for their 
fidelity towards him. 0, in anticipation of 
such an hour, and such a scene, and such tre- 
mendous issues as then shall be disclosed, how 
trifling must seem to him all the little trials, 
and perplexities, and discouragements which 
gather round his present efforts I With that 
great and high-minded Apostle, whose ministry 
we have reviewed this morning, he will tread 
them all under his feet, and, strong in the faith 
which is in Christ Jesus, will fling out his sub- 
lime challege to tribulation, " None of these 
things move me, neither count I my life dear 
unto myself, so that I might finish my course 
with joy, and the ministry, which I have re- 
ceived of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel 
of the grace of God." Such, dear brethren, is 
the motto which he has graven on his shield, 
and under which, content to endure hardness 
as a good soldier of Christ Jesus, he will strug- 
gle on, till the great victory shall be won at 
last, 



" O Almighty God, who, by thy Son Jesus Christ, 

DIDST GIVE TO THY APOSTLE SAINT PeTER MANY EXCELLENT 

gifts, and commandedst him earnestly to feed thy 
flock ; make, we beseech thee, all blshops and pas- 
tors diligently to preach thy holy word, and the 
people obediently to follow the same, that they may 
receive the crown of everlasting glory, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." 



L'BRARY OF CONGRESS 



022 168 900 8 



